(April 30, 2014 / JNS) A growing number of lawmakers in the United States, Great Britain, and the European Union are openly suggesting the billions of dollars, pounds, and euros that they and others have collectively bestowed upon the Palestinian Authority to promote peace and reconciliation with Israel have done the exact opposite.

The evidence is now too great to ignore, a growing number of lawmakers confess. Key legislators say abundant funding has only been financing the flames of confrontation, intransigence, and openly advertised institutional terrorism. The U.S. alone contributes between $400 million and $500 million annually to the PA. That sum is now threatened.

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For many, as Al-Monitor reported in a headline, the Palestinian Fatah movement’s reunion with Hamas seems to be “the last straw.” Reunification will create what one lawmaker called “the single best financed terror structure in the world.”

The concerns are manifold. Hamas and its Gazan partners wage daily war against the Jewish State—10,000 rockets in recent years. Gaza can become a direct pipeline to Iranian, Syrian, and Hezbollah weaponry, creating a formidable terror nexus just a 20-minute drive from Tel Aviv. But the threat goes beyond just Israel.

In Latin America, Hamas has been engaged in rampant narcoterrorism in a tri-border region centered near Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. Hundreds of operatives from Hamas as well as Hezbollah, operating with millions of money-laundered dollars, have created a lawless domain that funnels money back to the Middle East, according to a 2010 report by the Crime and Narcotics Center of the Central Intelligence Agency. Moreover, the report cites information that “Hamas and other terrorist organizations use this region to plan their actions, to obtain supplies, and to live for a certain period of time before launching new attacks in other countries.”

Most of all, the new Hamas-Fatah entity could outshine al-Qaeda. Whereas al-Qaeda must walk in the shadows and dwell in caves, the reconstituted well-armed, well-financed Hamas-PA entity would walk the gilded corridors of government in seeming diplomatic trappings while continuing to threaten and implement terrorism, at high noon and in public parades, all with impunity and endless international taxpayer financing.

A growing clamor among recession-wracked parliamentarians here and abroad warns Palestinians that the gravy train may quickly dry up.

First, parliamentarians across the planet had to confront recent revelations that the PA was paying generous salaries to convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons. The more innocent civilians they killed, the greater was their monthly salary. A sliding scale was openly set forth in the Palestinian Law of the Prisoner, with more money and benefits going to those killing the most people, whether by bombing a bus or simply massacring infants sleeping in their beds. A well-endowed Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners ensures efficient payment of the monthly stipends. The word used in the law is “ratib”—Arabic for “salary.” It could not be denied.

Far from denying it, Palestinian officials regularly boast of the program. “These people are heroes and freedom fighters,” a Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners spokesman confirmed to skeptical Telegraph reporter Jake Wallis-Simons in London, trying to validate the program. The Ministry spokesman added, “We have nothing to hide, and all the laws that regulate these payments are published in newspapers and accessible for anyone who looks for them … There is no other issue in the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation which gathers so much support among the Palestinian population.”

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) who in 2006 authored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, said of that legislation, “This law strictly prohibits U.S. money to flow to a Palestinian Authority that is controlled by, and includes amongst its ranks, members of the terrorist organization, Hamas.” Congresswoman Kate Granger said the Palestinian unity pact “puts in jeopardy future U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority.”

Edwin Black is the award-winning author of the international bestseller IBM and the Holocaust. This article is drawn from his just-released newsbook, Financing the Flames: How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation and Terrorism in Israel.